New CT scan research published on August 5 reveals the dodo possessed a visual processing brain region comparable to nocturnal birds, suggesting Mauritius’ iconic flightless bird was active at dawn, dusk, or night, challenging centuries of assumptions about its daytime habits and supposed low intelligence.
Centuries of popular culture depicted the dodo as a bumbling, dim-witted creature destined for its own demise. A fresh wave of anatomical research is completely upending that caricature. Scientists analyzing computed tomography scans of dodo skulls have discovered that the bird’s brain structure tells a radically different story about how it navigated its island home in Mauritius.
Inside the Dodo Brain: Reducting the Optic Lobe
The international research effort, led by the University of Lethbridge in Canada, examined CT scans of dodo heads to map the size and shape of their brains. When researchers analyzed the neural architecture, they discovered that the optic lobe—the region responsible for processing visual information—was extremely reduced in the dodo compared to related species.
“Our interpretation is that this species was really, really not relying much on sight,” study first author Sara Citron, a doctoral candidate in behavior and evolution at the University of Lethbridge in Canada, told Live Science. “And the only situation where you’re not relying on sight is when there is no light available.”
Sara Citron, doctoral candidate in behavior and evolution at the University of Lethbridge
The study, published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, compared dodo scans against 36 living species of pigeons and doves, alongside the extinct Rodrigues solitaire. While the solitaire possessed a brain typical of a giant pigeon, the dodo showed specialized adaptations. Researchers concluded that alongside an enhanced sense of smell, this reduced visual processing ability strongly points to the bird being crepuscular or nocturnal, active during twilight or in the dark.
Cognition, Pigeons, and the Nocturnal Nicobar Connection
Despite the unusual shape of its skull and its famously domed head, the dodo was far from unintelligent. The cognitive centers of its brain scaled directly with its body size, matching expectations for a bird of that scale. Scientists note that this means the dodo was probably just as clever as modern pigeons, which are well-documented problem-solvers capable of understanding abstract concepts of space and time.
Genetics and evolutionary history anchor this pigeon connection. A flighted relative of both the dodo and the solitaire landed on the volcanic islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues roughly 10 million years ago. With no native land predators, these birds gradually abandoned flight, grew larger, and adapted to their isolated ecosystems. Modern genetic sequencing identifies the Nicobar pigeon as the dodo’s closest living relative.
Operating under darkness may have offered the dodo a distinct ecological advantage on Mauritius. Researchers suggest that a nocturnal lifestyle allowed the birds to escape competition for food sources with the island’s numerous daytime-active turtles and other native species.
The Origins of the Dumb-Dodo Myth
If the dodo was reasonably intelligent and well-adapted, how did it earn its reputation as the ultimate symbol of stupidity? Historians and biologists trace the myth to early sailors and traders who encountered the birds after Dutch explorers landed on Mauritius in 1598. Because the dodo evolved without mammalian predators, it exhibited no instinctive fear of humans.
Early navigators quickly learned how to exploit this trusting nature. As researchers note, sailors found that if a single dodo was captured and left in distress, its cries would cause other dodos to run toward the noise, allowing crews to round up multiple birds with ease. This survival strategy—perfect for an isolated island free of aggressive land mammals—proved fatal once human hunters and invasive species arrived.
Extinction, Ecosystems, and De-Extinction Plans
Dutch settlement triggered a rapid collapse. Alongside direct hunting, sailors introduced dogs, cats, pigs, and rats that preyed on adult birds and consumed their eggs. The last reliable sighting of the dodo occurred in 1662, though some records suggest isolated survivors lingered until 1680 or 1681.
Today, the landscape of Mauritius has transformed dramatically, with much of the terrain converted to agriculture and urban development. Yet the island’s prehistoric ecology is well-documented thanks to sites like the Mare aux Songes marsh, discovered in 1865, which preserved evidence of ancient forests dominated by tambalacoque trees, palms, and screw pines alongside giant tortoises, fruit bats, and parrots.
This ecological baseline has fueled an audacious modern effort to return the bird to its native home. US-based biotechnology firm Colossal Biosciences has partnered with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation in a de-extinction initiative to recreate the dodo using sequenced genomes from the dodo, the solitaire, and the Nicobar pigeon.
Habitat Planning and What Comes Next
While Colossal’s geneticists work in laboratories to edit primordial germ cells and insert hybridized pigeon DNA into sterile chicken embryos, conservationists on Mauritius are preparing the ground. Vikash Tatayah, director of conservation at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, notes that the organization is conducting feasibility studies to identify ideal release sites.
Potential sanctuary locations include the Black River Gorges National Park on the mainland, alongside offshore nature reserves such as Round Island and the islet of Aigrettes. While uninhabited islets offer protection from introduced predators like monkeys, mongooses, and feral cats, mainland sites face heavy human interference and invasive species pressures that must be managed before any reintroduction can succeed.
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